Rin's Little Friend
by Cotton Candye
Summary: In which Rin has something in her purse and detective Maki is determined to get to the bottom of the story.
1. Day One, or What could it Be?

It was a strange thing, sound. So many ways in which it could be used; to make music, to detect the existence of children before their birth,

to alert observant listeners to strange sounds coming out a friend's purse.

"Rin, what is that?" Maki asked. Her training to be a doctor and her expertise in music led her to be most in tune with sound, and what she had heard sounded suspiciously lik-

"What is what, nya?" Rin replied. Despite her seeming innocence, had she just moved to deny her purse from Maki's eyes?

"What is that thing you have inside of your purse, Rin? Is it what I think it is?"

"I don't know what you think it is, nya. What do you think it is?" Rin made a definite move to put her purse out of sight, that time. Maki was sure of it. Now, how to get to the bottom of this? The first years were at the park together, so there was someone else she could rope in to help her, but would Hanayo help her over Rin? She needed an incentive…

"Say, Hanayo, I heard the new A-Rise single came out yesterday."

"Mhm! But, it was sold to lottery winners only, so I couldn't get it." Hanayo had perked up at Maki's reference to her favourite idol group, but remembered why she was at the park with her two friends instead of at home being serenaded by UTX's idol extraordinaires, ending on a note of dejection.

A dejection that lasted all of three seconds, as Maki whipped out a winning ticket.

"You mean people like me? It's not like I'm enough of a fan of them to _need_ this, you know. I totally didn't spend all of yesterday after practice buying tickets or anything. You could have it. Just, could you do something for me, first?"

Maki knew Rin was done. Throughout her execution of her cunning plan, she'd made sure to speed up to walk on Rin's right in order to box her in with Hanayo on her left, where the purse was. The hook had been attached, the line had been thrown, now for the sinker.

"I just need you to see what's inside Rin's bag for me, and this winn- Hey! I changed my mind, catch Rin first, then we'll talk later!" Rin had taken off midway through Maki's checkmate, feverishly running from the both of them. She knew they wouldn't catch her, either; being a track star had its benefits.

Maki had planned for this. There had been no way catching Rin would be easy. She'd set up a trap, sending the text while bribing Hanayo, and she was about to call in.

"Nozomi, she's coming to you, we're 100 metres behind. Do it."

At her cue, The absolutely pure mother figure of µ's popped out from the parfait shop she had been staked out in and prepared her hands for her patented

"Washi Washi attack!"

groping manoeuvre. Rin was caught off guard, but the center of balance advantage she had served her well as she managed to duck under the top-heavy death machine barreling towards her.

At that moment, Nozomi realized she should have thought this one out, or have played more tag when she was little. Either way, her momentum carried her to the ground. Rather, she dumped herself unceremoniously onto the sidewalk as her prey ran jovially past.

"Can't touch this! Nya nya nya nya!"

Nozomi picked herself up and took a casual look around. There had been no one in the vicinity besides Rin, so her total failure would be kept a secret as long as her kohai was caught.

"Nozomi... I thought I could trust you the most out of everyone, but I haven't seen a dive that bad since the time papa made me watch the World Cup with him." Maki said from above her.

"You tell nobody and I'll call in Elicchi to help you catch her. That's nobody including Hanayo, if she ever makes it here." Nozomi looked back to see if she could find the girl in question, casting her eyes up and down the street before finally finding the aforementioned girl, still at the park…

"That's a big if, isn't it? Anyways, i accept your offer. How soon can you recruit Eli for our cause?" Maki asked.

"As soon as tomorrow morning. I might even throw in a Nicocchi for the low, low price of watching you guys express your undying-"

"I could always just tell everyone how you dolphin dove in the middle of an empty street for no apparent reason. Maybe I'll even hint that it's your fetish or something like that." Maki threatened.

Nozomi realized she had made a grave mistake with regards to the girl in front of her. As recently as autumn, Maki had believed in Santa, and had otherwise been an innocent and pure soul, but the months of exposure to the part-time miko had matured her greatly. Usually, Nozomi would feel pride, but at this moment, Tojo Nozomi felt true fear for the first time in her life.

"I'll bring Elicchi to the rooftop tomorrow morning. No one else, I swear." she said nervously.

"Good," replied Maki, "Hanayo and I will see you guys then to get to the bottom of this."

Nozomi's last thoughts as she left Maki to return home were that while finding a student council president amongst the second-years had proven difficult, the president for the year after was pretty much set in stone already.


	2. Day Two, or Critical Mission Failure

"Alright, you got us up here, Maki. What's up?" Eli said. The squad of ragtag detectives were camped on top of the roof, Maki and Hanayo on one side, Eli and Nozomi on the other.

"I need you to help me with getting to the bottom of this mystery; Rin had something in her bag yesterday afternoon that was making sounds, and we need to find out what it is." Maki explained.

Eli's face became oddly red.

"Something making sound, you say? I think we really shouldn't intrude in her private life."

For a moment, no one said anything.

"Elicchi, I don't think she's old enough for _that_. Besides, look at this card," In Nozomi's hand was The Virgin. "I drew it right when I heard about this little operation of Maki-chan's to make sure that if we were intruding, I'd leave you, Ayase Eli, pure maiden, in the dark, blissfully innocent, while I, Toujou Nozomi, part-time miko put my virtue on the line-"

"Right, that's enough of that. Back to the topic at hand, Rin had something in her purse making sounds yesterday and we're trying to find what it is, any suggestions on how to proceed?" Maki said as she shut down Nozomi's dramatics.

"I think that we should bribe her with food!" Hanayo exclaimed, rice flying from her mouth due to the rice ball she was eating as a mobile breakfast. "We could cook her ramen and not give her chopsticks until she tells us what's in the purse!"

"Harasho!" "Absolutely not!" Eli and Maki yelled at the same time.

"No one here can outrun Rin, right? Only Eli even has a chance. If we keep her chopsticks, she'll just hunt us down and take them. That's not going to work." Maki explained.

"But Maki, what if we hide them?" Hanayo suggested after a moment of thought.

"I suppose we could try. When? The quicker we get to the bottom of this, the better."

"We could always just steal her chopsticks from her bento now, so she won't have anything to eat with at lunch today." Nozomi said nonchalantly.

The remaining members of the detective squad turned to look at Nozomi with varying levels of fear, which gradually turned into awe.

"I suppose we could…" Eli muttered.

"Then it's decided. As Hanayo and I have class with Rin, one of us will distract her and the other will attempt to sneak her chopsticks away. The three of us usually eat lunch at the bench in the courtyard, so go there to carry out phase two, everybody. Any questions? No? Dismissed." Maki ordered.

"Hey, Maki-chan, you're not the student council president just yet, you know?" Nozomi said with a teasing tone.

"Ehh? Nani sore? Imi wakannai! I'm not copying the sergeant from Full Metal Jacket or anything. I totally didn't just watch that last night to learn how to lead a squad." Maki defended. "Anyways, classes are about to start, let's get going."

* * *

"Hey, Kayo-chin, you've been looking at my lunch a lot today, are you hungry?" The first-year members of the crack investigative crew had gotten to class in good time without casting any suspicion on themselves, but Hanayo's stakeout of Rin's bento had not been so smooth.

"Oh no, of course not. What makes you think that, Rin-chan?" Hanayo said as she continued trying to find a way to separate Rin's lunch from her eating utensils. Or vice versa; she hadn't decided yet.

"You've been looking at it ever since you sat down. It's alright, you can have some if you want, nya." With Rin handing her the chopsticks and the food at the same time, Hanayo made up her mind; even if the bento didn't contain rice, food was food, and it'd be a shame to waste it.

So, as casually as possible, she opened the window and threw the chopsticks out.

At that moment, the teacher walked into the room, ready to begin a bright new day. At the sight of the usually quiet and reserved Hanayo wielding a fierce expression while ejecting something from the classroom, she promptly walked back out the door, but not before muttering, "If I'm sleeping, somebody please wake me up. Koizumi-san would never do such a thing in reality, right?"

The teacher's incredulity caused all eyes to be on Hanayo and Rin, as the guilty party slowly closed the window.

"That was pretty slick, Hanayo. If I didn't know any better, I would have sworn absolutely nothing happened just now." Maki snarked.

"Hey, Kayo-chin, why did you throw my chopsticks out the window? I kinda needed those, nya. This lunch isn't worth much if I can't eat it." Rin said.

Hanayo finished closing the window and sat down to start thinking. Rin was right, that lunch was pretty inedible now. She realized, also, that she may have gone a bit overboard, but the plan was still on track. She'd just have to find some way to allow Rin to be able to eat after she spilled the intel. She could probably just give Rin her own chopsticks, seeing as how all she'd packed was rice balls which she could eat with her hands. Satisfied with the current status of the mission, she tuned back into the class.

And was met with all the stares of her classmates as well as that of her recently-returned teacher.

"Koizumi-san, would you care to explain to the class exactly what just happened?" said teacher asked.

"Uhm, I saw, a, uh, centipede, on the chopsticks, so I threw them out the window. For Rin-chan's safety. Absolutely. That's exactly what happened." Hanayo tried to explain.

* * *

"So what punishment did Hanayo-chan get, exactly?" Nozomi asked.

"She's on hallway duty. Not just the first year hallways either. She's not going home tonight until every board, tile, and plank on every floor in the entire building is sparkling clean." Maki replied.

"What happened with Rin's food situation?" Eli asked.

"Hanayo ended up giving her chopsticks to Rin. Along with the rest of her lunch. She just kinda threw it all on Rin's desk and ran away. Probably to be embarrassed in solitude." Maki answered.

The three intrepids still standing had stayed behind after practicing with µ's to discuss their next step in the club room. A discussion that had shifted to the fact that Hanayo hadn't been there. The third-years had thought it to be a mundane reason, but never in their imaginations could they have thought Hanayo to be capable of messing up so badly.

"Well then, if there's nothing more we can do today, I'd suggest we pack it up and try to come up with something tomorrow. The plan to ransom Rin's food for knowledge wasn't a bad idea, but the execution could have used some work, from what I gather. Let's use a night's sleep to muse over what we could do." Eli said, finishing the meeting.

"Eli, if you hadn't said to get some sleep, I would have left anyways from how bad that pun was." Maki said over her shoulder as she walked out.

* * *

 **A/N: So I've realized, over the course of this chapter, that I absolutely can't keep up a 400 word/day pace. I'm going to try 200 for now. Other reason this chapter's so late is that I skipped 4 days. (only 1 of them were skipped without reason though!) I'm pretty sure the 3rd chapter's going to come a bit quicker, but we'll see what happens.**


	3. Day Three, or Beware Nozomi

"Good morning, everybody. Here we are again. I hope you've all gotten some sleep," Maki began as she started off the group's morning meeting. "Because we're going to need to do better than what we did. That was pathetic. Hanayo?"

"Right, but today is a new crop of rice!" Hanayo said. "And by that, I mean today is a bright new day, for the glorious rice plant. And for other, less important things. Like finding out what Rin had in her bag two days ago!" Hanayo had been assigned by Maki the night before to deliver the morning's briefing, to have a change of pace, but she just couldn't keep her mind off her glorious favourite food! She'd make it up to Maki later.

"Thank you so much for your input, Hanayo. I appreciate it greatly." Maki said, sarcasm dripping from her voice. How hard was it to keep her mind off rice for just long enough to start a meeting? Too hard, apparently. Hanayo had better make up for that terrible opening speech later.

"So, Hanayo-chan's idea didn't work yesterday. I volunteer my idea to go next." Nozomi piped up.

"And what would that idea be, Nozomi?" Maki asked, frustrated. She didn't think what was going to come out of her senpai's mouth was going to be any good. Despite the good and motherly aura Nozomi portrayed, she was goofier than anyone else in µ's.

"Elicchi, why don't you tell them?" Nozomi suggested. Eli visibly reddened. Alarm bells started ringing in both the first years' minds. Eli's next line didn't help either.

"Uh, well, alright. So first of all, we're going to need Kotori in on our plan, specifically because of her knowledge of the school grounds and her connection with the principal." Eli started.

"Why, exactly, do we need that? That makes it seem like this plan is going to be complicated." Maki asked. Those alarm bells were really making themselves known.

"Sounds like there's a big chance something is going to go wrong, too." Hanayo added. Big alarm bells. Big and red and super annoying but probably very accurate alarm bells. She and Maki were going to regret this, whatever it was going to be. She could feel it.

"The reason, you see, is…" Eli began.

* * *

"I regret everything." Maki said. "I hate you, Eli, I hate you, Nozomi, and I hate me. Me most of all for agreeing to this. Existence is suffering. Woe is me. Ugh."

Nozomi gave her a grin. "You should've known what you were unleashing when you recruited me, Maki-chan."

"Let's hope this works. I can't help but feel Nozomi's going to get carried away, though." Eli said.

Nozomi recoiled in mock hurt. "Why, I would never, Elicchi. You two will just have to trust me."

"Trust you to molest someone for information without losing the plot? If I hadn't been overruled you would've been off the team for this." Maki said incredulously. "Anyways, I can hear the second years' footsteps now. Not a word about this until after the meeting."

* * *

Rin noticed as she walked into the Idol Research Club room that Kotori's eyes were looking uncomfortably in Nozomi's direction. Thinking nothing of it, she sat down to prepare for the meeting. After the events of the past two days, however, she quickly started nodding off.

"Rin-chan," Hanayo whispered, "You look really tired. I'll tell you when we need you up."

Rin jumped at the invitation and promptly fell asleep without inhibition.

A critical mistake.

"Eh, where'd everyone go?" Rin mumbled as she woke up groggily. Kayo-chin had told her to go to sleep until they needed her, but where were they now? There was no way they could an entire meeting without needing her input on _something._

"Don't you worry about that, Rin-chan." Nozomi's voice? There she was, in the corner, her hands poised for-

"Nozomi-chan, what are you doing? Nozomi-chan, we can talk about this, I won't nap during the meeting again I swear! Nozomi-chan- EEK!" With one massive lunge, Nozomi was on top of her, causing her to scramble or end up violated.

With Nozomi's first move avoided, Rin scrambled to the door to fling it open-

Except for the tiny problem that the door was locked.

"Don't run, Rin-chan! I won't do anything inappropriate for this school!" Nozomi cackled as she set herself up for another attempt.

Rin leapt out of the way yet again, but she felt herself tiring. Usually, outrunning her senpai would be no problem, but with her just having woken up from a nap and having had little rest otherwise the past few days, she knew she was going to lose. The only question was, what would await her once Nozomi got her hands on her?

"Rin-chan, Rin-chan, come to mama! I know you can't keep this up!" This time, Nozomi didn't go directly at Rin, but to her side, just so that Rin would crash into the corner of the wall on her evasion.

"Nozomi-chan, please, whatever sins I've committed, we can fix, can't we? Nozomi-chan, please stop coming clos-ERR!"

Visitors to Otonokizaka High that day swore it was haunted as they heard one girl's screams and another's gleeful, maniacal laughter, no matter where they went in the building. Of course, the source was a certain Rin Hoshizora and her molesting senpai, Nozomi Toujou. Regardless, the school gained a following among the occult, a fact that was unintentional on Nozomi's part but one that she would become quite happy about.

"I feel like I forgot something," Nozomi mused as she looked at the twitching heap of limbs on the floor. "Oh well, it can't have been that import- oh! Oh right! Rin, what was in your purse two days ago at the park?" The pile of muscle, bone and skin on the floor didn't give her an answer. "Well, shucks."

Elsewhere in the school, Principal Minami was striding very purposefully towards the Idol Research Club. She had been entertaining potential transfer students' families when they'd all heard it; the bloodcurdling screams accompanied by the deranged laughter. The others had assumed some kind of ghosts were in the school, causing them to whisper about how the whole place was haunted, but she knew better, and she was going to give µ's a piece of her mind for disrupting her efforts to keep the school afloat.

"Hi, mom!" Kotori chirped as she casually cut the principal off. When Hanayo had told her about the plan, she hadn't thought too much could happen, and that she'd just been told as backup. That was obviously not the case. She'd been in the home economics room working on the outfits for µ's with Nico when she'd heard the plan being carried out. Considering the Idol Research Club room and the sewing room were on opposite sides of the school and she knew the Principal had a tour scheduled for around this hour, she had rushed to get in the way of her mother and seemed to have gotten there in the nick of time.

"Kotori, did you hear that just now? It sounded like it came from your friends." The principal stated.

"Oh, yeah, I was going to check on them right now, actually." Kotori said. She needed to buy time for them to get away.

Eli had also heard the effects of Nozomi's master plan from her spot in the courtyard, and she realized quickly that Nozomi had gotten out of hand. With that in mind, she and Hanayo looked at each other.

"We need to get them out of there." "Yes, boss!"

The two of them in agreement, they grabbed the ladder they'd kept beside them in case the worst happened and sprinted to the window of the Idol Research Club room.

"Alright, Hanayo, you support the ladder. I'll go up and save them. We don't have much time."

"On it, boss." With that affirmation, Eli was off like a shot, using all the flexibility and strength she'd gained from being a ballerina.

"Nozomi, follow me if you want to live!" She yelled as she spotted her best friend hovering over her victim, poking at her to try to revive her. "Bring Rin. She's our responsibility now, too."

* * *

"So, Kotori, you're sure there's nothing I should know about? Not as your principal, but as your mother, if there's something threatening the safety of your friends, shouldn't you tell me?" Principal Minami said as she continued onto the clubroom.

Not if the danger is also my friend, Kotori thought. She'd done her best to slow the Principal down at this point, the rest was up to Eli and Hanayo. One more turn and they were on the same hallway as the scene of the crime.

Principal Minami put her master key in the lock as Kotori held her breath. Had they gotten out?

The room was empty.

"Oh? I could've sworn the sounds came from this room." The principal mused. "Hmm, the window is open."

She walked over to the window and looked down, only to see Nozomi on the ground with Rin's head in her lap.

"Toujou-san, what happened?" The principal called down.

"I was walking with Rin when something jumped out of a bush and surprised her, causing her to faint. It got away before I could see what it was, though." Nozomi replied, straight-faced.

"We probably thought it came from this room because the window was open all the way, mom." Kotori chipped in. She had thought the perpetrators would've been able to get away, but to able to get away and set up a plausible cover, they were quicker than she thought. The next time she had a devious trick to pull on Umi or Honoka, she knew who to recruit to help.

"Well, girls, it's good to see you're all safe, just remember to be careful in the future. And walk in the centre of the path, away from the bushes, if there's a chance of things jumping out. I'll be going now." The principal thought she had a pretty good idea of what had happened, but if they were this good at covering up, she wouldn't make a big deal out of it. She'd gotten at least somewhat used to their quirkiness by now.

In the silence after the Principal left, the girls shared a collective sigh of relief. The plan had predictably failed, but at least they'd avoided getting in trouble. Just then, the sound of a phone buzzing startled them out of of their reverie.

"15 unread messages? They're all from Maki-chan, too." Hanayo unlocked her phone and looked at the contents. What could have been so urgent that Maki texted her 15 times?

'Cover blown, abort, abort.' 15 identical messages with the same line. Maki must have heard the ruckus from the piano room and been worried silly.

'Everything fine, tell u later' Hanayo texted back. She didn't expect a response right away, so she was surprised when her phone buzzed before she could even turn off the screen.

'Nani sore? Imi wakannai!'

Hanayo turned to the group around her.

"Girls, we have some explaining to do."

* * *

 **So sorry this took so long, I got smashed by the dual terrors of writer's block and laziness. Here's the longest chapter to date as compensation!**


	4. Day Four, or Stay Thirsty

For day 4, the µ's war machine was in full force.

After Maki had been filled in on the occurrences of day 3, of course. She hadn't been too thrilled at all the ways the plan had gone sideways, but found complaining too much unnecessary. In the end, they had not been caught, Rin still didn't know what all this was about, everything was mostly fine.

"Eli, please tell me that your plan is going to succeed. We're three days in now, and I'm already surprised Rin hasn't caught on." Maki said.

"Don't worry, Maki. I have a plan that's absolutely foolproof. As expected from your senpai, right?" Eli replied.

Her boast was met by complete silence from the motley crew.

"Alright, so none of you think this will work, but just you wait until the end of the night. Just you wait."

* * *

"Eli-chan, you don't usually call me out to this bench at lunchtime, especially alone. What's up?" Rin asked.

Eli couldn't blame her for questioning strange requests a bit more than usual. Rin was visibly tired, with hints of bags under her eyes. There was pity in Eli's heart for the younger girl, but at this point, the 8 members of µ's participating in the plot against Rin were in too deep.

Also, Eli really liked the plan she had laid out for today, so she wasn't about to back out for petty emotions like mercy or compassion.

"Rin, I know you've been having a tiring go at things recently. Would you like to come to a get-together at my home after school? Alisa will be working on homework with Yukiho at the Kousaka Bakery today, so we will have the whole place to ourselves." Eli said.

Rin scratched her head a little before replying, not looking the most enthusiastic at being offered the chance to be harassed by µ's for a whole afternoon and evening.

"No offense, nya, but most of the reason I've been having trouble recently is because of you guys." She said.

"That's why we're having it at my house. I promise to keep the girls in check, and there's nothing already there that they can take advantage of to mess with you." Eli started.

She saw Rin relax a bit at her senpai's reassurances, so she knew her piece de resistance would be plenty effective.

"Also, we're going to making ramen together." Eli finished. Bait laid.

"Well why didn't you just say so, nya? I'll be there!" Rin said. Bait taken.

A critical error.

"Sounds good, Rin. I'll see you later today!"

As soon as the bubbly first-year walked out of sight, Eli turned towards a clump of bushes that had been recently erected. Extremely recently.

"You can come out now, girls. She fell for that one hook, line, and sphincter." She announced to the bushes which transformed themselves back into their constituents, Nozomi, Maki, and Kotori, with leafy branches taped to them. Despite the success, they seemed like they were really trying hard to hold in laughter. It had been a success, hadn't it?

"Elicchi, the proper expression is hook, line, and sinker. I just thought I'd let you know." Nozomi said as the other two couldn't hold it in anymore and broke down laughing. Eli reddened; she'd been in Japan quite a while now, she typically had flawless Japanese.

"If you think about it, when you catch a fish, the hook attached to the line pulls the fish up from the sphincter. That's where the hook attaches when you're pulling fish up. I'm not wrong!" She defended.

Her only response was three separate peals of laughter.

* * *

"Welcome, Rin. Please make yourself at home." Eli greeted her guest.

Rin walked in to see that the rest of µ's had already arrived, leaving her the last one. Her mind started setting off alarm bells, but having just arrived, it would be awkward for her to leave right away. Also, was that…?

"Hey Rin-chan! You're just in time. Me and Honoka-chan are about to start on the soup bases. Do you mind lending a hand?" Hanayo called out from the kitchen section of the apartment.

So much for turning tail and running. Oh well, if Rin was going to go out, going out while eating her favourite food wouldn't be half bad.

As the two first years got started on the food prep with Honoka, Rin cast a glance around the room. Nico and Nozomi were helping Eli with setting up the table, while Kotori, Umi, and Maki were setting up tea in the den area.

Quickly enough, Rin put all her focus into making the best ramen ever. Eli hadn't skipped on ingredients, so she wasn't going to skip out on effort!

Perhaps she should have skipped out on effort just a bit, as the table and tea were set quickly, which meant everyone else was sitting together in the den.

"Umi, Nico, have you two been filled in on what's going to happen tonight?" Maki asked quietly.

"Eli told us and Honoka when we came in. There's Nico-Nico-no way I'm missing this!" Nico exclaimed.

Maki had to look back at the kitchen quickly to make sure Rin hadn't heard anything to make her flee. Relieved, she turned back.

"Please, do not blow our cover until this event is over." She sighed.

* * *

After dinner, Rin was as relaxed as she had been all week so far. Nothing untoward had happened, and her guard had slipped lower and lower as the night went on. Believing Eli had been difficult, but if her stomach had anything to say about it, her trust was totally correctly placed.

"Now then, everyone. Back in Russia, after meals in winter, we would drink a little bit of alcohol to preserve the warmth in our bodies until we slept. Who would like to partake in this old tradition?" Eli asked the squad.

"Eli, none of us are of age. Are you sure this is a good idea?" Maki replied.

"Don't worry, I'm not asking any of you to drink a whole bottle or anything. Just enough to feel the warmth. A very small bit. Trust me, it's going to be enjoyable!" Eli exclaimed.

Hearing no more objections, she rose to grab a bottle and some shot glasses as Nozomi tidied up the tea set.

"Nozomi, do you mind helping me pour out some for everyone?" Eli asked her fellow third year.

"Why, help get everyone drunk? You can count on me!" Nozomi answered.

"That's not what I-that's… not what the intention is, but thank you?" Eli said.

As Nozomi brought the glasses, filled with small puddles of clear liquid, to the seated members of µ's, she handed them out to the first years first.

"Alright, Elicchi wanted to do this in some kind of order, so we're going youngest to oldest. Hanayo-chan, if you would start us off?" Nozomi said.

Hanayo took a long look at her shot glass. The plan, as explained by Eli in detail that morning, had been to get Rin, and Rin only, drunk enough to confess about whatever had been in her purse that faithful day earlier that week. She just had to trust that her senpais would give her something weak enough.

Come to think of it though, nobody had mentioned anything about limiting collateral damage at any point during this operation. Oh well. She just had to hope that she had a high inbuilt alcohol tolerance. But what if-?

Realizing the more time she had to think about the drink, the more she would overthink and scare Rin, Hanayo picked up the shot glass and downed the liquid in one quick, smooth motion.

It seemed as she had nothing to worry about though, as it just like burnt liquid sugar going down.

"We really have a future life-of-the-party type in you, don't we, Hanayo-chan?" Nozomi observed.

"Anyways, next up is you, Rin-chan," Nozomi said as she grabbed a second glass and placed it in front of Rin. "bottoms up!"

Rin had thought this would be the point where they would pull out some trickery, but seeing as Hanayo looked not even the slightest bit affected by her glass's contents, she allowed herself to relax and pick up her glass. Before throwing the liquid inside her mouth though, she was hit by the absolute smell of the alcohol.

"Nozomi-chan, you're sure this is completely fine, right?" Rin asked her senpai.

"Of course it is, Rin-chan. You just saw how Hanayo-chan downed hers, right? It's not that strong as alcohol goes." Nozomi assured her.

With one final glance at Hanayo, who gave her a thumbs-up for encouragement, Rin fixed her gaze onto her glass, emulated her best friend, and downed the contents of the glass in one fell swoop.

And oh GOD that burned. Ow, ow, ow, owwwww. How had Hanayo managed to not be affected at all? Rin tried to turn back to the girl to see if she could find any tells on just how much that burned her, but as she tried to turn her head, the room turned in the opposite direction.

Then the reverse direction,

Then the opposite direction again.

Then she couldn't tell up, down, left, or right were anymore.

'Eli-chan, since when were the lights orange?' Rin mumbled as she passed out.

The rest of µ's looked at their fallen teammate in horror. Most of them had assumed Eli's offering would be a light sake or white wine, but to knock her out…

Eli noticed that the conscious members of µ's were looking for the container of the spirit that had felled their friend. More accurately, she noticed everyone but Nozomi looking for it. Her fellow senior had been over to her home before, and knew exactly what Rin had been given.

"Eli-chi," Nozomi began in her saccharine sweet someone-is-in-major-trouble voice,

"Why did you decide to feed our cute little junior Moskovskaya vodka?"

'i knew she was light in weight, but I couldn't have guessed she'd be such a lightweight!' Eli defended.

"Eli, she's 15. Papa's told me of 25 year old interns who would pass out from the smallest amounts of vodka." Maki retorted.

"Then why didn't you stop me?" Eli asked.

She was answered by a pur from near her legs; Rin had flopped onto Eli as the vodka obliterated her consciousness, and was currently performing her best impression of a cat curled around its owner under a kotatsu.

Not the most inaccurate simile Maki had ever thought of.

"How was I supposed to know you were giving her actual vodka? I thought it would have just been a placebo!" She said.

"Um, Maki-Chan, you're the one who's the heiress of a family of doctors, not Eli. None of us are scientists either. No one else would think of something like that." Hanayo cut in, gently.

Even saying that, though, she also wondered how Eli had managed to feed Rin actual vodka. Wasn't that illegal…? Actually, had she been fed vodka as well? Is that what vodka was?

How had Eli acquired the spirit anyways? She was Russian, so it was prevalent in her culture, but she was still a third-year high schooler in Japan, more than a few years too young to be allowed to purchase any alcoholic drinks, Maki thought. She took one look over at the blonde, noticed a complete lack of remorse in her expression, despite what should have been a looming threat in Nozomi, and figured that she didn't really care to pry.

Nozomi had been reading Hanayo's intentions to become a fine purveyor of vodka, and put a stop to that train of thought right away.

"Hanayo-chan, in case you were wondering, what you had was rice wine. Not nearly as alcoholic as what she had."

"Oh, that's good to know" Hanayo squeaked. She didn't think it had been that obvious that she had been considering making vodka her only sustenance for the near future, but Nozomi was sharp. She gave a silent thanks to her senpai for steering her away from the dark side.

"A-anyways..! We need to take care of Rin, who knows what that vodka could have done to her!" Maki exclaimed, pointing at Rin who was doing her best impression of a cat emoticon.

"Maki, look at her," Nozomi said as she also pointed at the girl in question, blissfully passed out, "she's fine. All we need to do is get her into her bed to sleep it off."

"Nozomi's right, we just need to hide the body!" Kotori chimed in.

"Kotori, while that phrase is technically correct, the connotations are not exactly the best, or most applicable." Umi chided her.

Kotori responded by beaming at her friend.

* * *

"Alright, let's go over the plan again. When her mom asks what happened, we explain that… Does anyone have any suggestions on what possible cover we could use?" Maki asked.

She had gone to Rin's house along with Hanayo, Kotori, and Nozomi to try to sneak Rin into her bed, but despite vast discussion on the long walk over, there had been no concrete excuse agreed upon.

"Ooh! I got it! We say she conked her head as she was leaving!" Kotori suggested.

"Her mom is going to question why we didn't lay her down instead to avoid jostling her. There must be a better option." Maki refuted.

"Don't worry, girls. Leave this to me." Nozomi said as she gathered them all in a huddle to discuss her plan.

"That just might work, Nozomi."

At this point, Rin had been unconscious for the better part of half an hour now, but she was rudely awakened by Nozomi's hands violently attacking her. As she sat up to scream, she was muffled by a hand covering her mouth courtesy of Kotori. After the initial panic had worn off and she realized she was in familiar, if slightly unwelcome company, she made an attempt to stand up fully.

Only to instantly have her vision replaced by stars dancing around her periphery, even with her eyes closed.

"Rin-chan, take it easy! I don't know if you remember, but you drank some pretty strong stuff." Hanayo said as she braced her friend.

"Anyways, Rin, now that you're up, we need you to be lucid enough so that we can guide you to your room. Just answer whatever questions your mom asks and we will be fine. Can you do that?" Maki asked.

"I'll try, nya. I feel really, really wobbly though." Rin answered. She was also visibly, to Maki, swaying. But as the kids say, #YoLo.

Granted, her one life was going to be significantly shortened if Rin's mom cast any doubts on the whole operation, but still. This was their best plan, so it would have to work.

Kotori bit the bullet and volunteered herself as Minami Kotori, Ringer of Doorbell, as the rest of their small crew got themselves into position. The bell reverberated for what felt like an eternity until someone finally answered the door.

"Oh Rin-chan, and all your friends too! We weren't expecting visitors so late, but please, do come in!" Rin's mom greeted.

If she noticed anything off with her daughter's disheveled appearance or had any inclination to punish the girl, she showed no signs of it. Of course, having once been a young person in her youth, she figured she knew more or less what had happened, (and she wasn't wrong.) but if Rin's friends were responsible and kind enough to carry her intoxicated daughter home after a round of drinking, she wasn't about to cause a scene. Rin would have been bound to experiment at some point anyways, and this seemed like it had been quite a good environment for it.

"Thank you, Mrs. Hoshizora. If you don't mind, we'll have to all return home soon after we drop Rin off, so we won't be able to stay too long." Nozomi said, taking the lead for their group. She couldn't believe their luck, but they were almost there. Just a few more steps.

"No worries, ladies. Please make yourselves at home for however brief you decide to stay." Mrs. Hoshizora answered.

With the express consent of the Hoshizora matriarch, the band of four worked together to covertly prop Rin up as she stumbled her way to her room. Once there, Hanayo set about removing her friend's coat and shoes, trying to leave her with as comfortable of sleepwear as possible.

"Rin, before we go, we have a few things to say to you." Nozomi started as she watched Hanayo undress her friend for bed.

"We felt we should explain to you what we've been doing to you over the course of the week," Maki continued.

"It might feel like some of the members of µ's were plotting against you, and that's cause we kinda were. The chase on Sunday wasn't an isolated incident. Nozomi forcefully attacking you yesterday, Eli getting you drunk today, even the loss of your chopsticks on Monday due to Hanayo, the perpetrators of these events had a singular, shared motive." Kotori added.

"This was all just to find out what you had in your purse on Sunday, at the park, but in the end, we didn't even manage to do that, despite all the trouble we caused you. Sorry, Rin-chan." Hanayo said, laying Rin down onto her futon.

The three of them had been anticipating some sort of strong reaction. Some yelling, physical assault as retribution, or anything else of that sort. Instead, all they got was a lazy yawn. It seemed that a capacity to react calmly to events was a gene that featured prominently in the Hoshizora lineage.

"Kayo-chin, why didn't you just ask? It was a fitness tracker." Rin mumbled in reply, already drifting into sleep.

Hanayo thought about that for a second, then another. She probably should really have just asked, instead of going along with all the crazy plans their friends had come up with. Rin wouldn't have had anything to hide from her, anyways. She committed this thought to memory as she finished tucking Rin in. So much frantic action could have been avoided if she had just asked. She had half a mind to lie down right there and curl up into a ball. These past few days had not been easy on any of them.

The other three in the room thought about it as well, but came to a very different conclusion. Over the past few months, µ's had gotten close, but probably not close for asking for the info on something like this to be straightforward and non-awkward. Given the chance, would they go through this whole song and dance again?

Absolutely.

After the four of them had left with Hanayo shutting the door, Rin heard a vibration from her purse. Groggily reaching in, she cast her arm around until her fingers closed on a small, egg-shaped object, which had been the only thing in the bag besides her phone and money, ever since the previous week. Pulling out her Tamagotchi, the source of the vibration, she noticed that her virtual pet had simply indicated that it had gone to sleep. Satisfied with her little alien's current status, she swiftly followed suit.

* * *

A/N: Well it sure has been a while. Year and a half or something like that? Oops.

Shoutout to B99 for giving me a gag, I wonder if you can spot it?

Fun Fact #1: Instead of spill the beans, I almost wrote spit the beans. Good thing I looked it up first.

Fun Fact #2: This story was going to be 6 chapters long, but my outline for the last 2 was super rough so I just cut it off here, with a double length finale.

Fun Fact #3: Count all the times Honoka appears in this one. I didn't notice until near the end of writing, but by then it was too late.

Thanks go out to everyone who's been waiting for this to update. I went through some stuff, lost my creativity, and only now it's back because I'm procrastinating on my learning.

Until the next one, see ya.


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